In the end it was all about the team. On Tuesday, Calvert County voters went big for the triumvirate of Melissa Goshorn, Joseph Marchio and Paul Harrison in the board of education race.
“Unity played a role,” Melissa Goshorn, District 3 winner, said Wednesday morning. “It might be why we were successful.”
Goshorn told Southern Maryland News she was “in shock, that we all won, the voter turnout. We were very fortunate.”
Goshorn, who started her school board campaign in 2023, outpolled challenger Jeanette L. Flaim by nearly 8,000 votes.
“Our victory is pretty awesome,” Harrison, the winner in District 2, said.
Harrison, who had made two unsuccessful runs for county commissioner in 2014 and 2022, defeated school board incumbent Antoine White by over 7,000 votes.
“I’m excited and relieved and looking forward to getting to work,” Marchio said.
In his second run for school board, Marchio outpolled Mike Shisler, retired elementary school principal, by by nearly 3,400 votes. He agreed that the “banding” of three candidates “with similar philosophies” was a successful approach.
The candidates, collectively, promised to be change agents for the school system, which, despite its academic, arts and athletic accomplishments, has been beset with reported disciplinary issues and culture clashes.
Goshorn opined that there is a “disconnect between administrators and teachers. Teachers are leaving in droves.”
She added that some of the school system policies on the books, including how policies and procedures are created, need to be looked at. Other policies involved political activities on school campuses, which Goshorn said are in place but not being enforced, plus safety and security procedures, need scrutiny from the next board.
Goshorn also affirmed the reference to “white privilege” in the school system’s anti-racism policy needs to be deleted from the text.
“I work with numbers,” Harrison said, adding that he will seek access to the school system’s books to “find out why they ask for more money when they are running a surplus.”
Harrison added that the school board and board of county commissioners need to work with each other during the early stages of the budget process.
“It can’t be an antagonistic relationship,” Harrison said.
In addition to cooperating with the independent financial audit of the school system, Harrison said, “we need to have one [audit] that looks at the way we do business.”
Marchio said his priorities are “increasing school safety so that students and teachers can focus on education, make sure the budget process is transparent and improve students’ performance.”
“I appreciate all the love and support from my family and friends,” White said Wednesday morning. “The results weren’t what we wanted but that’s not going to deter me. I love my community and I’m committed to show up.”
White, who is currently serving as school board president, congratulated the three winners, adding, “I will be helpful in any way I can.”
The three winning candidates had each won recent endorsements from the 1776 Project PAC, a conservative group whose founder, Ryan James Girdusky, says on the group website that he created the PAC after objecting to books on race issues that a teacher read to his godson in school.
Marchio, Harrison and Goshorn will join holdovers Jana Post and Lisa Grenis after they are sworn in next January.
